The 2024 Super High Roller Series at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Spa in Northern Cyprus ramped up the stakes with its first $51,500 buy-in event. As expected, the field was smaller than in previous tournaments, with 30 elite players entering, but the competition in Event #4 still brought thrilling action.
Emerging victorious was Japanese poker pro Masashi Oya, who triumphed over Jeremy Ausmus in a heads-up match, claiming his first-ever PokerGO Tour (PGT) title and a first-place prize of $535,000. This win further solidified Oya’s place as the top-ranked player from Japan, with an impressive $8.5 million in live tournament earnings to date.
Oya has been a part of the PGT since 2022 and consistently makes deep runs in high-stakes events. Before this victory, Oya had several near-misses, with three runner-up finishes and three third-place results. However, the last period has been transformative for the Japanese player, with some notable victories at prestigious events. He secured his first WSOP bracelet in the $100,000 Ultra High Roller at WSOP Paradise, earning a staggering $2.94 million. Additionally, he claimed his first PokerStars Silver Spade at EPT Monte Carlo, where he took down a €25,000 event for €504,300.
2024 Super High Roller Series Event #4 Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize Money |
| 1st |  Masashi Oya | Japan | $535,000 |
| 2nd |  Jeremy Ausmus | United States | $373,000 |
| 3rd |  Adrian Mateos | Spain | $262,000 |
| 4th |  Matthias Eibinger | Austria | $180,000 |
| 5th |  Sorel Mizzi | Canada | $120,000 |
2024 Super High Roller Series Event #4 Final Table Recap
After the first day of Event #4: $51,500 No-Limit Hold’em (7-Max), seven players remained in contention, all eyeing the top prize of more than half a million dollars. However, with only five places paid, two players would walk away with nothing. Matthias Eibinger was leading the charge in his first appearance at the 2024 Super High Roller Series. He was followed closely by Samuel Ju, Sorel Mizzi, Adrian Mateos, and Masashi Oya. All five were within a tight range of 8 big blinds, leaving only Jeremy Ausmus and Danilo Velasevic with 20 big blinds or less.
Almost an hour and a half passed before the first exit at the final table. Unfortunately for Ju, his ace-ten couldn’t outlast Mateos’ ace-queen and finished seventh. In the $25,750 6-max event one day before, Ju luckily squeezed himself into the money with sixth place, but no luck this time around.
The bubble play lasted over three hours before Velasevic met his unfortunate end. His pocket kings fell to Mateos’ ace-deuce, which hit miracle trips on the turn, leaving Velasevic with just one big blind. Although Velasevic managed to triple up in the next hand and had a few chances to get into the money as other short stacks doubled, he eventually lost with jack-six against Oya’s seven-four, ending his run in sixth place.
While everyone was struggling to get into the money, Oya was feasting and had more than twice the chips as the rest of the field combined. Now that the bubble finally burst, the play loosened up considerably. Mizzi was the next to go, losing queen-ten against Oya’s queen-jack. Oya then continued his dominance by eliminating Eibinger, the start-of-the-final-table chip leader, who pushed with queen-jack suited against Oya’s dominating king-queen.
Entering three-handed play, Mateos found himself extremely short on chips. He eventually made his stand with nine-three on the big blind but ran into Oya’s dominating… ten-three. The board missed both players, and Oya’s ten-high was enough to send Mateos out in third place.
In the heads-up battle, Oya began with more than a 4:1 chip lead against Ausmus. Despite the odds, Ausmus quickly doubled up after Oya pushed with 10♠8♠, and Ausmus found A♦K♠ on the button. The flop came J♠7♣A♠, keeping Ausmus in front. The turn brought the 7♠, giving Oya a flush, but Ausmus had 10 outs to make either a full house or a higher flush. The 6♠ on the river gave Ausmus the much-needed double-up.
However, the momentum didn’t last long. Although Ausmus briefly took the lead after winning a couple of pots, Oya regained control after value-betting his top pair ace against Ausmus’s pair of deuces and a flush draw. The final hand saw Ausmus slow-play pocket kings, but Oya flopped two pair with ace-six. After a series of bets on the flop and turn, Ausmus surprisingly shoved all-in, feeling he under-represented his hand, only for Oya to quickly call. The river was a blank, and Oya secured his first Super High Roller Series title and an impressive $535,000 payday.
* Images and hands courtesy of PokerGO.
